EAGLE CREEK PARK, Ind. – The University of Washington women’s rowing program advanced two of their three boats out of the Saturday semifinals to the grand finals to be held on Sunday, June 1. Both the varsity 8+ (6:32.284) and the varsity 4+ (7:38.059) will have a shot to win the national title in their events. The second varsity 8+ (6:47.484) will compete in the petite final for a best-possible seventh place finish.

“It’s great to see the varsity and the four in the final. The thing that strikes me is just the quality and caliber of this regatta. I’ve talked to a lot of coaches and a lot of folks from around the world and this is probably the pre-imminent regatta in the world right now as far as breadth and quality of competition. It’s really, really good,” head coach Bob Ernst said.

The V8+ was up first again Saturday morning in the first of two A/B semifinals. Right off the start, the three boats from Washington, Ohio State and California jumped out to an early lead in the field that also included Virginia, USC and Indiana. Over the first 1,000 meters, the three leaders were virtually bow-ball to bow-ball, with California just ahead.

At the 1,500 mark, it looked like Cal still had the edge and would cruise into the finish, but the Buckeyes pulled away from Cal and UW and would end up winning the semi.

Both Cal and UW would cruise across the finish to earn spots in Sunday’s grand final, which will determine the 2014 NCAA V8+ Champion. That race is scheduled to begin at 10:50 a.m. ET (7:50 a.m. PT).

Ohio State, Cal and UW will be joined by Stanford, Brown and Michigan, who all qualified out of the second V8+ A/B semi, in the grand final tomorrow.

The 2V8+’s semi was up next in a seven-team fight to make it through to the top race on Sunday. The Huskies faced Princeton, Ohio State, Brown, UCLA, Harvard and Washington State. Princeton and Brown would jump out early on the field and take control of the race, but the Husky, Bruin and Buckeye crews wouldn’t let them take it easily.

It would be Ohio State that would eventually catch the two Ivy League boats, leaving UW and UCLA to battle Brown for third-place and a chance to row for the national title. Neither would succeed, though.

The Huskies, who crossed the line fifth in 6:47.484 will be back on Sunday in the petite final with UCLA, Washington State, Harvard, Michigan, Notre Dame and USC at 10:20 a.m. ET (7:20 a.m. PT).

The V4+ would close the day for the Dawgs with a spectacular race in their semi. Right off the start the crew took control of the field. Cal was in second, and would eventually catch up to fight for the first place finish.

UW did what it could to hold off the Golden Bears, but by the 1,500-meter mark Cal had just inched in front of the Husky boat. Cal maintained the advantage, and reached the finish line first. Both will vie for the national V4+ title tomorrow at 10:10 a.m. ET (7:10 a.m. PT) along with USC, Stanford, Virginia and Brown.

“This is sensational racing. When you see one of the varsity semifinals with the range being less than .4 of a second between going to the final and not going to the final and when you see the range of qualifying times separated by less than four seconds across all six boats that are going to be in the final, you know it’s good. The coaches are excited already, we can’t wait until tomorrow to see the shoot-out that is going to happen. It’s just totally exciting,” Ernst finished.

For complete results click here, heat sheets for tomorrow’s races will also be available on that site, when finalized. Full updates of the day’s action will be available through the team’s Twitter account, @UWHuskyCrew, and through the @GameDayIndy feed and live video will be available here.